41 Places To Go Fast!

This issue is dedicated to speed, and when you're a gearhead, you kind of have tunnel vision in that regard: How can I drive faster?

But there are other things you can do all across the country by land, sea, and air that net you insane mph and g’s without the risk of losing your driver’s license. We’ve got 41 places and ways you can go fast, and some are guaranteed to push you to limits you never thought possible. Check it.

01

BE A FIGHTER PILOT

Air Combat USA calls itself the first original civilian dogfighting school in the world. What that means for you is that it’s an air-combat school that feels very realistic for what took place during an actual air-to-air skirmish. What that also means is you don’t need any flight experience to be a “guest pilot.” You’re flying with a licensed fighter pilot to evade fighter aircraft through various maneuvers.

02

RIDE IN A NASCAR CUP CAR

Drive an actual NASCAR Sprint Cup car that’s been driven by NASCAR racers such as Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, or you can ride as a passenger in a two-seater. The NASCAR Racing Experience makes it possible to do it at your choice of speedway in various parts of the country, from Atlanta to California.

03

GO BOBSLEDDING

Built for the ’02 Winter Games, Utah Olympic Park is where athletes train for the winter Olympics in bobsled, luge, Nordic, skeleton, ski jumping, and speed skating. But when they’re not training, you can try the Comet bobsled ride, in which a pro takes three passengers down the length of the Olympic track. Expect 15 turns, speeds of probably 60 mph, and 5 g’s of force. While you’re at the park, you might also want to check out freestyle jumping -- on skis -- into the Aerials Pool, which is a 750,000-gallon tank of water.

04

JUMP OFF A BRIDGE

Here’s your chance to jump off the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia -- 876 feet. People have been doing this particular jump for 34 years, and you’ll be in the company of 450 BASE jumpers. To jump alone, you need 100 previous skydives under your belt, but if you’ve got no experience, you can do a tandem jump with a pro.

05

RACE A CAMEL

Virginia City International Camel Races take place in Nevada. You read that right: camel racing. In the U.S., why camels? They used to be service animals in that part of town for the gold mines in old-timey days. Riders are event sponsors, media, and members from the International Order of Camel Jockeys. The race is a U-shape course around the arena and lasts about a minute.

06

GO DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKING

Deer Valley Resort is where you can take a chairlift ride that will dump you at the top of a mountain. Then, it’s up to you to make your way down 70 miles of twisty mountain bike trails, the pucker factor at full-gonzo. They also have a mountain bike school, if you want to work your way up to that. Park City is the world’s first and only gold-level ride center, according to International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA.com).

“Speed is being in a groove so that everything around you is a blur, except the trail that you’re focused on ahead of you.”
-- Assistant Bike Patrol/Ski Patrol Manager Chris Erkkila

07

PRETEND YOU'RE RACING IN LE MANS

Coming on Labor Day 2014 is the new NCM Motorsports Park, where you will be able to drive hi-po vehicles and get instruction from pros. It’ll have a 2-mile west and a 1.1-mile east circuit, and configurations include a high-speed loop of 1.96 miles to the 3.15-mile technical course. It’ll be located across from the National Corvette Museum.

10

FREEFALL DOWN A WATERSLIDE

Don’t let the word “Disney” turn you off. Walt Disney World Resort is its own city -- almost as big as San Francisco -- and within its walls lurks the 120-foot-tall Summit Plummet, in which you freefall down a 350-foot waterslide to the tune of 55 mph.

11

SURF A DUNE

Meet Sand Master Park, the world’s first sandboard park. People in the know will know what this means: You can sandsled and sandboard, jump ramps, and do rail slides. If you don’t, the park offers sandboard lessons so that you’ll be off and running in no time. If sitting down and letting someone else do the sandwork for you is appealing, there are also dune buggy tours.

8/29

“On a sandboard, speed is the sense of weightless motion similar to flying, as you drop down a dune face.” -- Lon Beale, Sand Master Park

12

GO 217 MPH ON A PUBLIC HIGHWAY

The Silver State Classic Challenge Series was the first-ever legal open-road rally in the U.S. -- and now it’s been going on for 25 years. What happens is this: Nevada shuts down 90 miles of Route 318 so that in May and September more than 200 drivers can head to Ely and then go fast. Very fast. And on a road normally reserved for commuters, 318 has even been renamed The Silver State Classic Challenge Highway. It was on that stretch of highway that Guinness was able to award two world records: fastest road rally, and highest speed on the highway.

13

FEEL THE PULL OF 1.8 G'S

Step into Zero Gravity Corp.’s modified Boeing 747 and reach an altitude of 24,000 feet. Then the pilot starts messing with the angles, putting the plane through parabolic arcs that create weightlessness for 20-30 seconds 12-15 times (that’s when you can do those slow-mo flips). Oh, and there’s that 1.8 g’s.

HRM - How do you train to go faster than anyone else—not in terms of mechanicals. As in, what makes you fast? If everything is equal, what makes you the fastest?

KB - The faster a car goes, the faster you have to react, so I do a lot of training that focuses on reactions, like kickboxing. It’s also good to get kicked in the head from time to time.

HRM - You drive fast. What’s another fast thing you’d like to do?

KB - I used to ride motocross rather seriously. Now on my off days, I enjoy downhill mountain biking.

HRM - If you could switch places with any fast driver in any fast sport, who would it be and why?

KB - James Hunt for his extracurricular activities.

12/29

14

DRIVE FAST ON A LONG, STRAIGHT ROAD

The Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch lets you be the pro race-car driver you always knew you could be before pesky things like speed limits and cops got in the way. The Ranch is where you can find Ron Fellows Corvette Driving School, Radical Racing School, Lotus Performance School, and the SCCA License Recommendation School.

15

DRIVE A RACE TRUCK

Wide Open Excursions hands you the keys to a race truck and the freedom of the open road in one of its three locations: Reno, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada. You can do day trips, half-day trips, or even a Baja 1000 package.

17

GO 21 MPH IN AN ELEVATOR

The Stratosphere Tower elevators are known as the fastest double-deckers in the U.S. and can reach 21 mph. There are 108 floors, three floors per second, and it takes about 30 seconds to go from bottom to top.

18

FLY A TRAPEZE

You can go to Trapeze School New York and learn to throw yourself off a platform 23 feet in the air. A basic trick beginners learn is the “knee hang,” which the school estimates gets you up to 10 mph -- hey, that’s fast when you’re flying without wings. The double/double and triple are more advanced tricks that equal even more speed. Locations exist in several big cities.

19

ROAD RACE OR BLAST AROUND OFFROAD

Miller Motorsports Park is basically a motorsports amusement park. The 511-acre main area of the park has a 4.5-mile road-race course, as well as a 22-acre high-speed off-road course. The adjacent 900 acres also house a 2.5-mile desert-racing course. There are plenty of other things to do there, as well: a paved karting circuit, a rockcrawling course, and a 1.1-mile motocross course. The park also hosts the Ford-sanctioned Boss Track Attack and Raptor Assault schools. The ST Octane Academy for Focus and Fiesta STs is also here.

20

LEARN TO DRIFT

Adams Motorsports Park lets you bring your car and learn to drift or just ride along on the three-quarter-mile track with 14 turns. Pros also practice here. There’s a standard course and an optional one if you’ve already got your drifting feet wet.

21

RACE AN EXOTIC CAR

This is a racetrack experience in which you can get behind the wheel of supercars you probably never thought you’d get a chance to drive. We’re talking the six-figure variety -- Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, and Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan. Cheap thrills come from five laps in a Porsche Cayman, or you can spend upward of $3,500 for a 65-lap package combo featuring 13 cars.

Fast Talk With…Ivan Stewart

IS - I think any speed that gets your adrenaline up. If you are a fighter pilot, it would be one speed, and something different if we’re drag racing, and much different if you’re an off-road racer.

HRM - Is there such a thing as going too fast?

IS - I think so. Off-road racing is relatively slow, although 125 mph across the desert is fast, especially at night. One night, racing the Baja 1000, I almost went off a cliff while passing another car. It really was going very fast under the circumstances, and I was only doing about 40 mph.

HRM - How do you train to go faster than anyone else—not in terms of mechanicals. As in, what makes you fast? If everything is equal, what makes you the fastest?

IS - For me, it’s the simple fact I just hate to lose even more than I love to win. I mentally put myself on the podium before the race. I can see myself with the trophy. I always thought, someone is going to win today—may as well be me. I always worked out and stayed physically fit, that was a given.

HRM - You drive fast. What’s another fast thing you’d like to do?

IS - I think most everything I do, I do efficiently. Not necessarily the fastest, but the most efficient. When I was racing a lot, I always raced with the focus on not making mistakes, although I still get a thrill from driving fast, but getting to the finish line the quickest meant winning.

HRM - If you could switch places with any fast driver in any fast sport, who would it be and why?

IS - I always wanted to race the Dakar Rally; I would really like to drive that event on the Toyota factory team. Long-distance races have always been my strongest form of racing. I’d want to be Carlos Sainz from Spain. He is really fast. And I like his TV interviews. It would be fun to switch with him.

22

LEARN TO DRIVE YOUR SRT

If you’ve bought an SRT vehicle, you’ll get one freebie day of driving instruction from the Richard Petty Driving Experience. The whole thing is called SRT Track Experience to help you learn to drive your vehicle better on both the street and track.

23

RACE IN THE AIR

You’ve probably heard of ziplining -- a pulley suspends on a cable, and you’re suspended on a cable that stretches from one end of a platform to another. In the case of Soaring Tree Top Adventures, the various ziplines range from 50 to 1,400 feet in length and take you over the San Juan Mountains. The one particular line you’ll want to check out is called Racing Spans, where you can race someone, thanks to two parallel ziplines that are 606 feet long.

Two Fast Production Cars You Can Buy in the U.S. Right Now

24

DRIVE A DOGSLED

This is mush speed at the Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge. They’ve been doing the dogsled thing for 33 years. Sure, 4-8 miles per hour doesn’t sound that fast, but that’s because you’re used to car mph. You pedal-kick for extra speed and to help the dogs on uphills, and you’ll learn to shift your balance, too.

25

RIDE IN A FORMULA 1 CAR

Formula GP Experience is your chance to go two laps in a winning F1 car. That car, by the way, is a three-seater; only four exist in the world. The experience can be had in Texas, New York, and Florida.

26

SPEED DATING

Google, Yelp, or your local listings

Need to meet someone -- stat? Speed dating is all about timed first dates. Or timed love interviews. Or timed whatever it is when you sit at a table and tell the person across from you anything you can to establish yourself as marriage material before a buzzer goes off and their next potential future ex-mate tries to impress, too.

27

RENT A SPEEDBOAT

Water Fantaseas offers a 35-foot Motion catamaran for “speed junkies” that can reach up to 135 mph, as you thrash the waters in Florida in custom bucket seats. You can also try the 36-foot Spectre catamaran for speeds as high as 100 mph.

28

MOTORCYCLE TRACK DAYS

If you want to go fast on a motorcycle without getting a “coupon,” check out the Motoyard track day. There are various groups to choose from, including the one for racers and experienced track riders. It’s all about going fast -- riders are expected to be able to lap the 2.5-mile road course in less than 1.35.

29

GET FAST FOOD FAST

QSR magazine did a drive-thru study in 2012 to determine average service time. It concluded that Wendy’s was the quickest, with your visit averaging 129 seconds (compared to Burger King at 201 seconds). On a related note, an official eating website claimed 7.9 pounds of Curley’s french fries was eaten in 10 minutes in 2010.

26/29

30

SKYDIVE

Skydive Santa Barbara is skydiving with a view -- 270 degrees of ocean. The highest tandem jump in the U.S. happens here, at 18,000 feet.

32

DO A DEMOLITION DERBY

Google for one near you

It’s one of the gnarliest types of displays of carnage known to mankind -- we’re talking demolition derby, and you can enter to smash and ram other vehicles at various events across the U.S. We spotted a new arrival on the scene this year, the West Coast Derby Championship & Hot Rod Expo.

27/29

33

GO WHITEWATER RAFTING

No matter what your level of experience (as in, you’ve never worn a helmet in the water to you’re a weekend warrior), you can partake in the experience of rapids of varying difficulty levels. For example, the White Salmon River trip takes you through a narrow gorge and offers an optional cliff jump, while Wind River has steep ledge drops, and Farmlands has vertical cliff walls. If you’re still in the need for speed, check out Husum Falls for a vertical plunge in a raft.

“Paddle hard, get down, hold on tight, and enjoy the ride! Hucking yourself off a waterfall or conquering life, same thing.” -- Jaco Klinkenberg, Wet Planet

Where Pros Drive Fast

34

35

Black Rock Desert: Go here to set a land-speed record if your car is powered by thrust.

36

Lake Gairdner, South Australia: Go here to set a land-speed record if you’re not in the U.S.

37

Autobahn: Go here if you’re in Germany. There’s no speed limit, although there’s an advisory speed limit. People ignore it. And when they wreck, they wreck tremendously.

38

THE MICHIGAN MILE

Muscle cars and exotics converge on this racetrack in Michigan, which lures owners of quick vehicles to a standing mile race. An open runway allows for high-performance cars to reach performance-high speeds.

Fast Talk With…Travis Pastrana

HRM - What is your definition of speed?

TP - My definition of fast/speed is more closely related to a stopwatch than it is to an actual mph. Taking a turn at 180 mph is really fast if everyone else is taking it at 160 mph, but it’s really slow if everyone else is taking it at 200!

HRM- Is there such a thing as going too fast?

TP - Only when you run out of talent.

HRM - How do you train to go faster than anyone else -- not in terms of mechanicals. As in, what makes you fast? If everything is equal, what makes you the fastest?

TP - In motocross, I was fast because I was willing to take more risk than my competitors. In rally, I was fast because I had an amazing co-driver, and we made better notes and had more trust in each other than most of our competitors. In NASCAR, I’m not fast yet -- but I’ll let you know when I figure it out!

HRM - You drive fast. What’s another fast thing you’d like to do?

TP - I love motors, but gravity works pretty fast, too. I love jumping from high places. Off bridges into water or off buildings with a parachute; I like to fall with style.

HRM - If you could switch places with any fast driver in any fast sport, who would it be and why?

TP - I’ve competed in most fast sports, but the two I haven’t that look like the most fun are drag racing and F1. It would be cool to switch places with John Force or Sebastian Vettel. But only for a day -- I love my life.

39

RIDE THE FASTEST ROLLERCOASTER

Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey, is where you can find the steel-accelerator Kingda Ka, which will take you from zero to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds and to 456 feet high, then down a 270-degree spiral drop. Yes, you will feel weightless and not just because you’ll unload your stomach’s contents.

40

RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG

Everybody spells it differently: “what you,” “whatcha,” and so on -- so if you’re Googling for this type of racing in your area, try various spellings, but the concept is the same: Race what you got, as is. Albany Saratoga Speedway has such a race.